Circadian, weekly, and seasonal mortality variations in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in Japan: analysis from AMI-Kyoto Multicenter Risk Study database

BackgroundSeveral studies have reported circadian, weekly, and seasonal variations in the rates of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). However, variations in the mortality of OHCA are not well known.Methods and ResultsWe investigated the 1396 consecutive cases of OHCA with cardiac etiology between October 2004 and September 2008. There were 2 peaks in the occurrence of OHCA in early morning and late evening. There was a weekly pattern with an increased incidence on Mondays. We found a significant seasonal variation in the frequency of events, with a maximum during winter. There was a trend of reduced mortality in warmest 3 months, especially among a subgroup of ventricular fibrillation/pulseless ventricular tachycardia with arrest witnessed.ConclusionThe present analyses demonstrated circadian, weekly and seasonal variations in the occurrence, and a seasonal variation in mortality in OHCA. Changes in temperature might influence the severity of OHCA and change the rate of success of cardiopulmonary resuscitation.